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Geek Culture / Photoshop and transparency

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Scraggle
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Posted: 4th May 2004 21:49
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Hello.

I have been using Adobe Photoshop to make images with transparency and saving them in PNG format for use in DBP. However, I can no longer get Photoshop to save the transparency detail.

The checkbox for saving alpha channels has become ghosted and when I save a PNG I get white where I should get transparency.

It must be something I have done within Photoshop but I don't know what and so I don't know how to undo it.

I realise I could save in BMP and use a colorkey for transparency but that is not the point. I need to know why photoshop won't let me save alpha channels anymore.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks

Need a reference manual for Tokamak? How about one for Nuclear Glory Collision? Or maybe BlueGUI?
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Richard Davey
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Posted: 4th May 2004 22:08
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Check what Mode you're in. Unless it's RGB you won't be able to save the Alpha channels.

Cheers,

Rich

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Cassi
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Posted: 4th May 2004 22:28
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Thanks for the reply Rich.

Unfortunatley, it is the first thing I checked and it is in RGB.
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Scraggle
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Posted: 4th May 2004 22:30
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Oops, my girlfriend Sheree (Cassi) was logged in from the 'Girl Coders' post.

Need a reference manual for Tokamak? How about one for Nuclear Glory Collision? Or maybe BlueGUI?
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Mussi
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Posted: 4th May 2004 23:07
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your girlfriend is also into programming? if so, so cool!

you could try setting it to png-24



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Scraggle
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Posted: 4th May 2004 23:22
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Thanks Mussi

I don't have a PNG-24 option.

I'm using Photoshop 7 so I can't imagine I'm missing something.
Is PNG-24 a photoshop CS option? If so I will have to wait a week or so because I have it on order but it takes a few days to get to Cyprus.

And yes, she is 'into' programming, in her own way. She can't grasp 3D movement on screen so her stuff is generally 2D - and pink!

I read something in 'Focus' magazine about the differences in male/female brains which means that females can't do the spacial awarness thing. But she doesn't like to be told that it is her brain that can't cope with 3D environments!

Need a reference manual for Tokamak? How about one for Nuclear Glory Collision? Or maybe BlueGUI?
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Dennuz666 v2
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Posted: 5th May 2004 09:22
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It has nothing to do with the version you use. I use 7 too without problems. You don't want to know this, but i can't help you. I tried a lot of things but can't get photoshop to 'grey' the tranparancy button. Try creating a new document with a tranparant background and copy the layers into it and try again. Maybe that helps?

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 5th May 2004 09:58
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try saving it through the 'save to web' button; if that doesn't work make sure you have the image looking how you want it exported and export as a TGA 32bit


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indi
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Posted: 5th May 2004 10:20
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The transparent option works ok for png as well as DDS which a plugin for shop can be found in the nvida developers section of the site.

I have made an example as well for download here

http://www.dbforums.co.uk/indi/dbp_examples/dds_opacity_test.zip


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Scraggle
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Posted: 5th May 2004 11:54 Edited at: 5th May 2004 11:59
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Thanks for the replies.

I tried 'Save For Web' and found the PNG-24 option in there and I could also select save with transparency there - so I did.

When I used the PNG image in DBP however, it did not have transparency but when I loaded it back into photoshop it did indeed have transparency - weird!

I tried your example indi - thanks. It works but which website are you referring to? I assumed you meant the nvida developers section of Adobe.com but I could not find it.

However, my main problem remains. Why is the alpha channels checkbox ghosted out when I try to save PNG or TGA?

I also tried 'Export Transparent Image' from the help menu but although everything seemed to work OK, I still found that the saved image had NO transparency!

Need a reference manual for Tokamak? How about one for Nuclear Glory Collision? Or maybe BlueGUI?
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AlecM
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Posted: 5th May 2004 13:36
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my experience is this:
You need to manually apply the texture again in DBP then use the transparency commands. Its really odd but its the only thing that would work on Roswell Racer.

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indi
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Posted: 5th May 2004 16:34
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I found a link to it here

http://www.quest3d.com/download/NVIDIA_DDS_PhotoShop_Plugin.zip


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Mussi
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Posted: 5th May 2004 22:04
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yup, you need to manualy apply the textures in DBP like Froggermon said else it won't work



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indi
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Posted: 6th May 2004 04:27
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that only applies to objects that dont have inbuilt textures already applied as in the case of a uv wrap.

for primitives and so forth it would apply.


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walaber
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Posted: 6th May 2004 07:19
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yeah I use lots of objects with transparent .png textures. the only thing you have to do is set object transparency obnjum, 1 in the code, to make the alpha channel active.

not sure about the problem in Photoshop though...

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Scraggle
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Posted: 6th May 2004 08:19 Edited at: 6th May 2004 08:25
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Thanks for all the replys but I still can't get it working! It is all the more annoying that this has never been a problem before.

Here is my object setup code:


Which I believe is what I am being told here but this is the result:


I get the same result with DDS files also - Thanks Indi, great link!

The Photoshop problem is no longer an issue because using 'Save for web' I can save PNG-24 with transparency and I can now save DDS - also with transparency. What I can't do is get that transparency to work with DBP.

What am I doing wrong??!!?!

[Edit] My shadow should look like this:

I had to convert the PNG to JPG for upload but you get the idea.


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indi
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Posted: 6th May 2004 09:32
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drop me a line via email since my ftp isnt working at the moment and ill send you a working example with the working files.


indi_frost@yahoo.com.au


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 6th May 2004 12:50
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Wow!!!

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las6
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Posted: 6th May 2004 14:07
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try remove the ghosting part.
what's mode 4 anyway?


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Scraggle
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Posted: 6th May 2004 15:13
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Thanks indi. However I tried doing as las6 said and turned off the ghosting and it works.



I was using ghosting to give the whole shadow a transparent effect much like the crosshair in this screenshot of the crosshair in 'Cue Balls Eye' view.


But now that I have seen it, I don't think it is necessary to have it ghosted.

@las6 You wanted to know what mode 4 was. What can I say? It is one of the 5(?) modes available for ghosting and it gives an image like the cross hair above. The other modes give different results - I liked this one`.

Thanks everyone for all your help!


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Lord Ozzum
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Posted: 7th May 2004 01:10
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yeah, his email is on his website
but never seen it mentioned before

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indi
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Posted: 7th May 2004 03:38
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yay problem solved, good work


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walaber
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Posted: 7th May 2004 08:35
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very nice screenshots!　

if you use ghosting, you don't want an image with an alpha channel. you usually want a standard greyscale image.

if you use an alpha channel, you shouldn't need to ghost it, the transpareny should do the trick.

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Scraggle
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Posted: 7th May 2004 20:29 Edited at: 7th May 2004 20:30
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Hi.

I thought I had this one cracked but unfortunately not!

My shadows penumbra has a visible edge to it almost like a halo but I have no Idea why. It should just fade away.



Can anyone please explain why?

Thanks


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Mussi
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Posted: 7th May 2004 20:46
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no, but you could try to set the transperency to 2 instead of 1 and set a ,1 flag behind the load image command to disable mipmapping



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Scraggle
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Posted: 7th May 2004 21:19
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Thanks Mussi

Sadly it didn't help. I tried both those things but the result is the same.


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Mussi
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Posted: 7th May 2004 21:46
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another suggestion is to leave some space between the edge of your image and the end of the shadow, hope it helps



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